there is called a boulder dwelling frog. >> what is a golden skink? >> we've got them as pets down there. >> what is it? is it a rodent? >> i don't know. >> we'll get to the bottom of that soon. that's going to do it for us on "around the world." i'm hala gorani. >> i'm mike holmes. cnn newsroom is next. hala will have the international desk an hour from now. don't miss that where she will punish you. punish you. thanks for watching. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> right now the obama administration is under fire on several fronts. we're waiting for today's white house briefing. line of coverage coming up this hour. the administration facing tough questions regarding the president's promise about keeping your health care plan. also right now, top administration intelligence officials, they're getting ready to get grilled this hour. the head of the nsa and the president's top intelligence chief are both standing by to testify. we'll have live coverage.

the nsa's decision to spy on american allies. maybe we'll learn something new. hello. i'm wolf blitzer reporting today from washington. it was a repeated promise from president obama. if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan he said it often. but an insurance industry source now says most americans on individual plans will see their existing coverage changed or even cancel. the white house says obama care will mean better more comprehensive coverage but at what the cost? the head of the agency in charge of creating the obama care website was asked about that at a congressional hearing today. >> this man wrote me and said, my wife has been recently informed by her insurance carrier that her health care policy does not comply with the affordable care act. now we must purchase a new policy to get the aim coverage at an 18% increase in our

premium. so what happened to the if you like your insurance, you can keep it. >> what i would tell that individual is if their carrier is telling them they're changing the plan and offering an increase, that they would need to go take a look what's available in their state and in their market. which is certainly something that's available to them through the exchanging >> yeah, at an 1% increase. >> joe johns has been digging into this for us. did the white house knowingly or perhaps not knowingly mislead the american public when the president so often said if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan? foo if you look at some of these statements they do appear to have made some statements at the outset while they were selling the program that appear to have been over broad. any made a blanket statement, made it sound like they were talking about all insurance and they were talking about most insurance. especially the insurance that people get through their employers. the president said again and again that you col keep your insurance but it's not clear how many times he actually

distinguished between employer-based insurance and people who bought private insurance after obama care was signed into law. or if that insurance changed, for example, after obama care was signed. then we all know now, your insurance could go away. it's not clear how often they told people that insurance companies might cancel positions because they didn't comply with obama care and that's happening, too. the administration points out this is information that's been out there a long time and in a statement today, the white house said in part, these protections will improve the plans that insurance companies offer today unless you're in the same plan that you were in when the law passed which is grandfathered out of these changes. in other words, nothing in the act forces people out of their health plans because the law allows plans that covered people at the time the law was enacted to continue to offer that same coverage to the enrollees. so it's a little bit complicated. there might have been an oversell when trying to get this

through. >> a lot of people now who like, presumably liked their plans are being told they're no longer eligible for those plans and getting letters from blue cross, blue shield from kaiser and other companies saying in order to comply with the much more intense requirements of obama care this plan you used to be on no longer exists. >> something like 300,000 people with florida blue alone in the state of florida getting that letter, very recently. we're told that number could go as high as between 11 million and 15 million people across the country could get these letters. it's also important to say the administration says probably almost half of the people who find themselves in that will situation with private insurance will end up getting subsidies from the government that cut that substantial, the higher number as much as in half. >> and the federal registrar back on june 17th, 2010, 2010 -- there was an estimate that

estimate that about 15 million americans would no longer be able to keep those plans assuming some of the assumptions they have here from insurance companies. >> and somebody should have come out and said sort of waved the flag and said on private insurance all bets are off. and they didn't do that. we have been talking about this issue of grandfathering, which is kind of complicated for some time now. so this is not a huge surprise to people who are very close to it, nonetheless, it's a very big surprise for those people getting those letters, wolf. >> of the 15 million hon have those individual plans, mostly self-employed people, anywhere between let's say 7 million and 12 million of them will have to get -- they might get better insuran insurance. >> i've talked to one puerto rican who found he was not going to get the subsidy.

that's a very bitter pill to swallow. suddenly you get this letter and all you can see is your insurance is going up and you end up paying more in premiums. it's tough. >> joe johns, good explanation. we'll have more on this part of the story coming up, including significant debate this hour on obama care. at the bottom of the hour, we're expecting to hear more insight into the np sa surveilance techniques and targets. the house intelligence committee will hear from the director of national intelligence james clammer and keith alexander. we're going to bring it to you live. today's hearings come on the heels of the la times report that the white house not only knew but signed off, actually signed off on the monitoring of world leaders' phones, including the phone of the german chancellor angela merkel. the administration has denied this saying the president didn't know until a review over the summer. here's the reaction to that from the house floor earlier today. >> according to the administration official, the president did not sign off on this stuff and was unaware of

the depth of the surveilance of foreign leaders. well who did sign off? mr. speaker, is there a shadow government in america that operates outside the law, outside the knowledge of the administration? sort of spooky, isn't it, mr. speaker? >> we expect more questions like that when the hearing begins later this hour. we'll have live coverage here on cnn. joining us now is our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, another story surveilance world leaders. the sensitivities enormous right now. but the president's role in all of this, it still remains murky. >> i had a long conversation with a senior administration official last night. and the white house position is this. that the president different. he approves the broad strokes, the priorities but he doesn't get into the weeds of the tactics of the individual targets. you'll remember another u.s. official spoke to evan perez yesterday and he said at least the president would he have to approve the framework of a program liking that included in its targets our allies and the

leaders of those. now you have other intelligence officials speaking out in the press in articles this morning with some frustration saying wait a second. we didn't do this on our own, weren't going rogue. we had white house approval. these are presidential programs empowered by executive orders. we would need that approval. you're also seeing frustration because other allies of the intelligence community, for instance, senators dianne feinstein yesterday being very critical here and now demanding a wide-ranging review of this surveilance as a whole. >> that's obviously a sensitive subject. question, does the white house, would the president personally have to authorize the wiretapping of the german chancellor's personal cell phone? >> our best information is that at a minimum when he comes into office, when he assumes the presidency in 2009, he would have to approve these frameworks, these programs that include those kinds of targets. although merkel's name as you referenced was on a list going back to the bush administration, when president obama came in, he would at least have to approve

the broad strokes of a program that included her or her country and her as a leader as one of those targets. >> you'll be back later when the hearing starts. i want to see what the members of congress, mike rogers and others have to say, as well. as i said, that house intelligence committee hearing on nsa is open. there will be cameras there. the subject surveilance of international leaders scheduled to begin at the bottom of the hour. there you see a picture of the committee room very few members inside so far. but they presumably all will be in there at the bottom of the hour. we'll have live coverage. so did president obama mislead americans when he said repeatedly that people could keep their existing health insurance under obama care? and the other significant question that is gaining some steam out there, kathleen sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, what should she do? should she resign? we're going to talk about that and much more. two congressmen from opposite

sides of the aisle both standing by. there you see them up on capitol hill, marsha blackburn and sheila jackson lee. an important smart debate, that's coming up next.

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just another way we put members first. because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. ♪ baby... ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ the obama administration is facing new questions today about the president's signature health care reform law. the focus on a promise the president often made. >> and if you like your doctor,

you can keep your doctor under the reform proposals that we put forward. if you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep it. >> bring in two members of congress with different perspective obz obama care. republican marsha blackburn of tennessee and democrat sheila jackson lee of texas. ladies, thanks very much for coming in. so congress woman sheila jackson lee, did the president mislead americans? because as you know, millions of americans now are being told their existing insurance planses are no longer up to par with what obama care requires and they have to apply for new plans. >> it's good to be with you wolf, and absolutely not. you know, republicans are trying to have an early halloween by having monsters in every corner. everything that is regarding the affordableable care act giving millions of americans the opportunity for health care our republican friends will find a monster. what is happening is and what has been noted by insurance leaders is that yes, there are grandfather plans but there are

plans not adequate or responsive to the affordable care act new benefits. ones dealing with pre-existing conditions and wellness care and so these plans are being upgraded. no insurance company based on the affordable care act is being forced to eliminate individuals from having insurance. they are upgrading those plans. what we do know is 700,000 persons have applied for information. we know it's working fabulously in kentucky and california. two distinctly different states. we know that millions of americans will have access to health care and better health care. so the president did not misrepresent. plans are being upgraded and americans are getting better plans and, as well, wolf, they're getting tax subsidies, something they never had before. >> congress woman blackburn, go ahead. >> yes, absolutely. what we are seeing is there are millions of americans, wolf, as you you have said getting termination letters the insurance they've had, the insurance they like, the insurance that fits their needs

and their pocketbook is no longer going to be available. so you have to ask -- why did the president continue to say that and if they did know that many people were going to lose their plans three years ago, why did he continue over the three-year period? who was informing him or who was not informing him that there were millions of americans who were going to see a loss of health insurancehan. now, when you talk about what is working in some of the states and she la referenced kentucky and california, basically what they have is medicaid expansion. and in kentucky, 21,000 of the 26,000 enrollees are those that have enrolled for medicaid. what we are seeing in tennessee is that people are losing. we've got about 28,000, 30,000 people that have lost a small business, access to a small business insurance program due strictly to the new president's

health care law regulations. so it has changed the marketplace. >> go ahead, sheila jackson lee. >> there again, you have untruth and misrepresentation. marsha knows well that all the republicans are trying to do is recover from their dastardly and thoshl abvocation for the shutdown of the government. this is giving them a birthday gift and, as well, this allows them to scare americans and put on the halloween mask early before halloween. the governor of the state of kentucky has said it is working well for the private sector and good for him. he has expanded medicaid which is part of the program that the president promised and is given through the affordable care act. millions of americans will come through that. i'm sorry that my state among others is not one that accepted that. the key is, did the president misrepresent? he did not. insurance leaders will tell you, they're not canceling and taking individuals off of insurance plans that are in fact adequate and compliant. they're taking them off of plans

that do not have the new benefits, the benefits that every person is looking to in new plans based on the affordable care act. what marsha fails to acknowledge is that these individuals working americans will get tax subsidies legitimate payments will come because they are in a new plan. this is a good plan. this is a working plan and millions of americans will benefit and lives will be saved. >> sheila talks about subsidies. it's important to note, this is money coming from the federal treasury. many people say we're $17 trillion in debt. we're borrowing $2 billion a day. we cannot take on a new entitlement which is going to push us further into debt. so that is issue number one. >> there we go again. >> it's very true, sheila. you can look at the treasury department. we're borrowing $2 billion a day to keep the doors open. and number two, the programs, the mandates, these essential

benefit mandates, these are things that people are being required to pay for even though it may be a health service that they don't need or don't want or doesn't hit their family's needs. but yet, they're going to be charged for it. and the premium is going to reflect that. now, the president made another promise that this would save the average family about $2500 a month. the letters and the things that i am getting, the e-mails i'm getting from my constituents, there is no one that is saving money. i have not gotten a single e-mail. >> i think what he said was $2500 a year, not $2500 a month. >> i'm sorry. you're correct. that's right. see, nobody is saving $2500 a year. >> she is not allowing the plan to work. that's the problem. she is not allowing the plan to work. do i need to go back to the horrific medicare part d that no one liked and was enormously expensive and caused the deep

deficit climb we had from the bush administration into the obama administration? but look where it is today. the affordable care act has reformed it and made it work. it was enormously expensive. it didn't work but we've made it work. on this issue of the deficit, mixing apples and oranges we have a $4 trillion economy. and the united states is not broke.of course, we need to deal with this. the act is paid for. the republicans during the shutdown wanted to undermine the pay for by dismantling the medical device issue because they don't want to ethis legislation pass. they want to see it fail, not pass, you can seed. there are millions of americans that will get health care. the president did not misrepresent. you will keep your health insurance. and you'll have the ability to get a more refined, a more updated, a more current and more expansive for you and your family. i'm here to save lives, not here to frighten people. i know the stories and i know

that women, children families -- >> sheila jackson lee, he gave congress woman jackson lee, i'm going to give marsha blackburn the last word but keep it brief. >> the program is too expensive to afford. you cannot keep the health insurance or the doctors that you have been seeing. this is changing the entire health care marketplace, the incompetence on this rollout has been staggering. the american people are looking at this and saying if you can't manage a website, then you certainly cannot manage health care and you cannot manage one-sixth of the nation's economy. so the they think it is time for us to just suspend all of this and start over. >> marsha blackburn, sheila jackson lee, a good solid serious debate as i knew it would be. thanks to you both for joining us. >> thank you. on the first anniversary of the superstorm sandy, we're going to talk with the atlantic city mayor, lorenzo langford about the on going recovery in the city.stay with us.

flashlights and candles will light up the beaches tonight along the new jersey and new york shores. it's all designed to mark the one-year anniversary of superstorm sandy which killed 181 people from the caribbean to long island. the new york governor andrew quo ho has ordered flags at state buildings lowered to half-staff to honor the victims. sandy caused about $65 billion of damage at popular resorts like coney island. the new york city mayor michael bloomberg was there today to talk about on going recovery efforts.

the new jersey governor chris christie is the also attending a number of sandy-related events today. he said the jersey shore has come a long way in its recovery but thousands are still waiting for help to rebuild their homes. atlantic city mayor lorenzo langford is joining from us nearby philadelphia. thanks very much for coming in. >> good afternoon, wolf. you're welcome. >> so what's the state of recovery in atlantic city? >> well, i'm very pleased to report that in atlantic city, our recovery process has been moving along quite nicely. i would say about 95% of our residents who had been displaced have been relocated into their humble abodes. and so we're well into our recovery process. i'm happy with that progress. >> are you getting the state and federal assistance you need to rebuild? >> absolutely, wolf. the one thing that i can absolutely attest to is that all of our partners in government have been absolutely fantastic. starting with the president on the federal level and secretary

donovan, the state of new jersey, everybody has stepped to the plate and rolled up their sleeves and done all that they should do to help us recover as best we can. >> what about the governor, crist christie? >> the state of new jersey has been wonderful. >> what about the governor chris christie? >> well, the state of new jersey and those professionals who are in certain positions in the state government have done has been asked of them, are and i'm pleased with their cooperation and support. >> i asked the question because you've had a rocky relationship with the new jersey governor. he criticized you severely backing in 2012 for not evacuating atlantic city. let me play that clip. >> evacuation is no longer possible and this has become particularly problematic in atlantic city where for whatever reason, mayor langford urged

people to stay in healshelters the city despite my admonition to evacuate, he gave them comfort for some reason to stay. i'm going to have federal and state emergency personnel going in there first thing tomorrow morning with live downed electrical wires all over the place risking their lives because mayor langford was worried some of his people were angry? that's not leadership. >> that's not leadership he said. so has your relationship with him at all improved? is there a relationship over this past year that has developed? >> wolf, what is important is that the governor has a job to do and so do i. the governor was wrong in his comments. i pointed that out. all of us who hold titles and serve in public office need to retain a degree of humility. none of us are infallible. none of us are perfect, not even the governor so when mistakes

are made and the governor was wrong, i clearly pointed out what he said was not true. and it's okay to admit when you make a mistake. obviously the governor has not seen fit to do that, but that whole situation, wolf, is water under the bridge. that's not important. that spat, it's over. the governor misspoke. i corrected him. that's over with. what's important is that we continue to move towards healing the residents of atlantic city and getting close to being 100% restored from that catastrophe that fell upon us one you're ago today. >> was the governor right when he said you should have evacuated atlantic city? >> again, with we've been over this a million times. you have the footage. your affiliates have the footage. the governor said i counter manded his order. he was dead wrong, plain and simple. i don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking about who shot john. the governor knows what happened. nothing is served by this spat, if you will, between the governor and the mayor. we have a job to do. that's to move the city forward.

the governor was dead wrong. he checked him. let's move on. >> i think you're right. you should move on. by all accounts, he's going to be re-elected probably very impressively next week. he's going to be in office what, for another four years. you're in office right now, atlantic city, a major city in new jersey. how do you repair this damage with your governor? >> and here's the good news. i expect to be popularly reelected, as well. as i said, i don't have a problem working with anybody. i'm always going to do that which is right for the city of atlantic city. and support any initiative that is good for the population that i serve and those who sent me to this office to represent their legitimate aspirations. whether we can get along on a personal level is irrelevant. the only thing necessary is for both of us to do what is expected us in our positions. >> as the mayor of new jersey, it would be good if you two spoke, coordinated, helped each

other for the benefit of everyone in new jesey and the people of atlantic city. >> no question about it. it would be better if we got along personally, you but we don't need to get along personally. all we need to do is respect each other for the job we have to do. if we do respect each other and endeavor to work cooperatively for the greater good of the whole, everybody will win. >> mayor lorenzo langford, the mayor of atlantic city. good luck to you and governor christie. i hope you guys can have a beer, talking about this and move on for the benefit of all of your constituents. >> well, i don't drink so there will be no having a beer. but i can work with anybody. >> have a lemonade or something, coca-cola or whatever and try to make peace. >> as a matter of fact, i'll be happy to buy him one. >> all right, good. maybe he'll accept your invitation which is generous. there are a few nice places in

atlantic city where i suspect the two of you could have a quiet meal and enjoy, as well, right? >> more than a few. i look forward to the governor coming back to atlantic city. as a matter of fact, he hasn't been back in the entire year since that storm devastated the city. >> are you inviting him to come back now as your guest? >> i am not. but should he come, i certainly would welcome him. >> okay. mayor, thanks very much. good luck. >> you're welcome, wolf. thank you. >> lorenzo langford, the mayor of atlantic city. other news we're following including serious pressure on the president under fire for an admitted lack of knowledge on some key issues. should he have known more about the failing obama care website and worldwide phone taps on allied leaders? stay with us. we'll take a closer look. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time.

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mike rogers is the chairman of the house intelligence committee just beginning a hearing under way right now just starting it. james clapper the director of national intelligence and general keith alexander, the head of the national security agency, the nsa, will be testifying answering questions, presumably about the nsa surveilance program including reports over the past few days that the u.s. has been spying on allied leaders, including monitoring the personal cell phone of the german chancellor angela merkel. we'll monitor what's going on, bring you the highlights. stand by for that. right now he's just opening up the hearing. meanwhile, president obama is being hammered on many fronts right now. how much did he know about the surveilance of friendly allies? why didn't he know about the problems that were going to plague the health care website?

i want you to listen to part of the new article from cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger she just wrote and posted on cnn.com. i'll read you a line. the ultimate irony may be this. a president who extols the virtues of government has now been sucked into the big government vortex experiencing up close and personal as they say what it feels like to lose control to the bureaucrats. the one who are afraid to deliver bad news not to mention those who don't deliver the news at all and the surveilance chiefs who didn't initially volunteer that they're spying on the private phone lines of america's best friends. gloria is joining us right now. senator excellent column. how big of a problem is this for the president? >> i think it's a very big problem. it looks like he's not in control of his government. we all know that this is a very big government, that the bureaucrats kk creep in and take charge. the president clearly understands that there's always

incentive not to the deliver the bad news to him to keep it from the oval office. and but at a certain point as he is fond of saying over and over again, the buck stops here. so whether or not he should have known or didn't know about the merkel phone calls, it's embarrassing for him. he should have been on top of the website, clearly, they weren't on top of the website over at the white house. that is bad for the president. so yes, he may be angry about it, but he has to kind of look at his management and ask the questions about, if i didn't know about this, why didn't i know about it? because i should have known about it. is it my fault or is it the way we're running the shop over here. >> the second term of had his administration. he wants to take charge of his government. what does he need to do? >> well, you know, he needs to figure out, i mean, you know, they're going to have to try and figure out what went went wrong. i was talking to a former senior

administration official who said to me, the sad part about all of this is when you try and unspool the thread here and figure out what went wrong, say with the website, that there may not be enough time left in this administration to actually figure out what went wrong and why. so have you no choice in had kind of situation but to kind of cut your losses and move onto the next thing because he's got a huge agenda that he wants to deal with, and all of this, all of this is taking him off message. had he moved from the government shutdown in which one would say he won politically, if he could have moved from the government shutdown on to healthy obama care, he'd be in a lot better shape right now. >> and they're not handling it all that well. >> right. >> the postmortem, the damage control or whatever. and in all the years i've covered president and a long time, people make mistakes. everybody understands people

make mistakes. when you try to spin and explain and come up with weird explanations that usually doesn't work. you have to acknowledge yes, i made a mistake. i apologize. here's what we're doing to learn from the mistakes and here's how we move forward. >> for the first time we heard an apology from the administration who administers the health care website during her testimony on the hill apologizing to the american public for that. i this i a little bit of contrition always, would, wolf. >> people understand that. >> and i think that these are complicated matters. everybody knew going into in that when you try and do something as large as the affordable be care act, there's always going to be revisions. there is an always going to be tweaking. there's always going to be, you know, upgrading of it. fine. but because of the government shutdown, which wanted to kill obama care, now that they've saved it, i think they're in kind of a political situation where they don't want to give

one inch on anything because it would look like then that they were.caving in a way that they didn't want to cave just weeks ago. so it's a difficult political situation. and they're not making it any better. >> all right. gloria, cnn.com. i read your column but i want all of our viewers to read it, as well. >> that was, wolf. >> everythinging that you very, very much. walmart says it's promoting thousands of workers ahead of the busy holiday season. we're going to hear from the ceo and ask him how criticism over how the company pays his workers is working out. clay. mom? come in here. come in where? welcome to my mom cave. wow. sit down. you need some campbell's chunky soup before today's big game, new chunky cheeseburger. mmm. i love cheeseburgers. i know you do. when did you get this place? when i negotiated your new contract,

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the director of national intelligence james clap ser testifying now before the house intelligence committee on what he calls the severe damage to the united states as a result of the disclosures of the surveilance the nsa surveilance program by edward snowden. let's listen in. >> but the disclosures for

better or for worse have lowered the threshold for discussing these matters in public. so to the degree that we can discuss them, we will. but this public discussion should be based on an accurate understanding of the intelligence community who we are, what we do, and how we're overseen. the last few months, the manner in which our activities have been characterized has often been inaccurate or misleading or some combination thereof. i believe most americans realize the intelligence community exists to collect the vital intelligence that helps protect our nation from foreign threats. we focus on uncovering the secret plans and intensions of our adversaries as we've been charged to do. but what we do not do is spy unlawfully on americans or the iz krz of any country. we only spy for valid foreign intelligence purposes as authorized by law with multiple layers of oversight to insure we don't abuse our authorities.

unfortunately, this reality has sometimes been obscured in the current debate and for some this has led to erosion of trust in the intelligence community. we understand the concerns on the part of the public. i'm a vietnam veteran and i remember as congressional investigations of the 1970s late irdiscloses and i was in the intelligence community then, that some intelligence programs were carried out for domestic political purposes without proper legal oversight. but having lived through that as a part of the intelligence community, i can now assure the american people that the intelligence community of today is not like that. we operate within a robust framework of stringt rules and oversight involving all three branches of the government. another useful historical perspective is during the cold war, the free world and the soviet bloc had mutually exclusive telecommunication systems which made foreign collection a lot easier to distinguish. now world telecommunications are unified. intertwined with hundreds of

millions of innocent people conducting billions of innocent transactions are a much smaller number of adversaries trying to do harm on the very same network. so our challenge is to distinguish very precisely between these twos groups of communications. if we had an alarm bell that went off whenever one terrorist communicated with another, our jobs would be easier. but that capability just doesn't exist in the world of technology at least today. over the past months, i've declassified and publicly released a serious of documents related to both section 215 of the patriot act and the surveilance act. we're doing that to facilitate informed public debate about the intelligence programs that operate under these authorities. we felt in light of the unauthorized disclosures, the public interest in these documents far outweigh is the additional damage to national security. these documents let our citizens

see the seriousness, the thoroughness, and the rigor with which the fisa court exercises its responsibilities. they also reflect the intelligence community's particularly nsa's commitment to uncovering reporting and correcting any compliance matters that occur. however, even in these documents we've had to redact certain information to protect sources and methods such as particular targets of surveilance but we will continue to declassify more documents. that's what the american people want, it's what the president has asked to us do and i personally believe it's the only way we can reassure our citizens that their intelligence community is using its tools appropriately. the rules and oversight that govern us insure we do what the american people want us to do which is protect our nation's security and our people's liberties. so i'll repeat. we do not spy on anyone except for valid foreign intelligence purposes and we only work within the law. now, to be sure on occasion we've made mistakes, some quite

significant. but these are usually caused by human error or technical problems. whenever we found mistakes, we reported, addressed and corrected them. the national security agency specifically as part of the intelligence community broadly is an honorable institution. the men and women who do this sense of work are honorable people dedicated to conducting their mission lawfully and are appalled by any wrongdoing. they too are citizens of this nation who care just as much about privacy and constitutional rights as the rest of us. they should be commended for their crucial and important work in protecting the people of the country which has been made more difficult by this torrent of damaging disclosures. that all said we stand ready to work in partnership with you to adjust foreign surveilance authorities to further protect our privacy and civil liberties. and i think there's some principles we already agree on. first, we must always protect our sources, methods, targets,

partners and relationships. we must do a better job in helping the american people understand what we do, why, and most importantly the oversight that helps insure we do it correctly. third, we must take every opportunity to demonstrate our but we also have to remain mindful of the potential negative long-term impact of overcorrecting the authorizations granted to the intelligence community. as americans, we face an unending array of threats to our way of life more than i've seen in my 50 years of intelligence. we need to sustain our ability to detect these threats. we certainly welcome a balanced discussion about national security and civil liberties. it's not an either/or situation. with that, let me turn to general alexander. >> chairman rodgers, ranking member, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the

opportunity to provide opening comments today. i have a prepared statement, but many of you know i'm not going to be able to read it as well as i can just tell you what's on my mind. i'm going to talk from the heart so that you know what we're talking about here from an nsa perspective as what i think you and the nation needs to hear. first and foremost, i've had eight-plus years at nsa. they are among the finest people in this country. what they do every day for this nation is unheralded. we don't get a lot of fanfare out of it, but it's absolutely superb. saturday i had the opportunity to work, again, which we have done every weekend since i've been there, to support our troops in afghanistan who are under threat of an attack. we do that all the time. our people were in there supporting our troops, supporting the military operations. and in eight-plus years, not one

person has ever come up to me and said, i have to work tonight or the weekend. they always come in. they protect our troops, and they protect this country. they've taken an oath to defend the nation and to protect our civil liberties and privacy. and they do that better than anyone i have ever seen. it is a privilege and honor to work next to them every day. what i want to tell you about is how did we get here, talk about the business record fisa, and i want to give you insights to what we see going on worldwide. i want to talk about the compliance and how we protect these programs and where we need to go in the future. and then, chairman, we'll address some of the questions i know you want to ask. so i'll drop that until your question portion. first, how did we get here? how did we end up here? 9/11. 2,996 people were killed in 9/11. we all distinctly remember that.

what i remember the most was those firemen running up the stairs to save people to themselves lose their lives. and we had this great picture that was created afterward of a fireman handing a flag off to the military, and i say the intelligence community and say, we've got it from here. >> we're going to continue to monitor this hearing. general keith alexander now testifying. earlier you heard james clapper strongly support the nsa surveillance programs. we'll take a quick break. more special coverage right after this. my asthma's under control. i don't miss out... you sat out most of our game yesterday! asthma doesn't affect my job... you were out sick last week. my asthma doesn't bother my family... you coughed all through our date night! i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. what did you say? how about - every day? coping with asthma isn't controlling it. test your level of control at asthma.com,

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take a quick look at the markets right now. there you see the dow jones industrial is up almost 90 points. we got some data this morning that showed housing prices are on the rise. that helped push stocks higher,

at least for now. wall street waiting until we get a statement from the federal reserve. that will presumably move the markets as well. walmart today said it's planning to promote thousands of workers ahead of the holiday rush. christine romans has the story in a conversation with the walmart's u.s. ceo. >> a company criticized for low pay trying to change the story line. walmart announcing at least 25,000 new promotions, higher pay, and more responsibility, bringing the year's promotions to 160,000 sales associates. >> we hear from them often. they ask us to stand up for them because they are good jobs. it's a chance for them to start and a chance for them to progress. >> a rare interview with the walmart ceo bill simon, who employs some 1.4 million people. walmart pays on average $12.83 an hour. that's slightly higher than the retail industry standard and above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. but walmart's critics say it is

far below a livable wage. just last week, congressman jan schakowsky called walmart executives, quote, welfare king, and told us walmart benefits from public programs that support, quote, their poverty wage employees. it's a criticism echoed by some union groups and other democrats. walmart ceo calls it unfair and misinformed. >> a pro union point of view and with a specific and particular agenda. we're no different than any other retailer in america. we provide opportunities for people to join the company and to grow. the level of subsidy that exists is an issue that the government decides. >> a familiar walmart talking point, 75% of store managers started as hourly associates. >> the issue isn't where you start. it's where you go to once you've started, the mobility. so raising the minimum wage will change the starting wage, but it won't adjust where people can go

to in the career opportunities that exist in the country today. >> livable wage debate aside, walmart's ceo is concerned about the head winds to consumers. among them, washington dysfunction. >> certainty from a customer perspective will generate confidence and certainty from a business perspective will generate investment. in both cases, uncertainty generates a lot of shoulder shrugging and waiting. >> with more than 4700 stores that millions of customers visit every single day, that's a lot of buying power, wolf. >> christine romans, thanks very much. i'll be back later today, 5:00 p.m. eastern, in "the situation room." we've got lots to report. also, special guests including the house intelligence committee chair mike rodgers. he'll join us live. senator lindsey graham of south carolina will join us live. and representative fred upton, the chairman of the house energy and commerce committee, which will hold special hearings tomorrow on obama care, the

rollout of the website. kathleen sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, will be testifying before that panel. we'll get a preview from fred upton. at 6:00 p.m., we'll have special coverage, a special report on obama care. thanks very much for watching. "news room" with brooke baldwin continues right now. >> wolf, thank you. great to be with you. i'm brooke baldwin. we continue here today. the world wants answers. right now this congressional hearing is underway. when you look at some of these pictures, this wasn't too long ago, these protesters here in the back of this room. they're holding up signs as the head of the nsa and the president's top intelligence chief are both there to testify as anger and suspicion grow over accusations of widespread u.s. spying. the worst of it, tapping the phones of u.s. allies. >> we, all of us in the intelligence community, are very much aware that